Help:Public domain

This page helps users determine whether a given work is in the public domain in the USA where Wikisource server is hosted, and which template to use.

If a work is in the public domain in Canada but not in the USA, without license compatible with the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License 3.0 and the GFDL, please post it on Canadian Wikilivres (requiring username as IP users cannot edit there).

Note: Foreign works published after 1923 are likely to be still under copyright in the US because of the Uruguay Round Agreements Act, even if they briefly entered public domain before the agreement.[6] Only unambiguous conditions are listed below.

Date of publication

Condition

What is public domain

Template

Before 1 July 1909

none.

all works.

{{Pd/1923|year of author's death}}, or {{PD-anon-1923}} if anonymous or pseudonymous

1 July 1909–1922

in compliance with US formalities, published in English language, or the author is known to have died in 1944 or earlier (more than 70 years ago)

all works.

{{Pd/1923|year of author's death}}, or {{PD-anon-1923}} if anonymous or pseudonymous

1923–1977

public domain in its home country as of 1 January 1996 and never published in the US prior to that date

all works.

{{PD-1996}}, {{Pd/1996|year of author's death}}, or {{PD-anon-1996}} if anonymous or pseudonymous

The constitution, acts, regulations, official documents (including proclamations, text of speeches, news releases, and other documents prepared by civil servants in the course of carrying out their duties), and their translations and compilations by central or local government agencies.

Any result of open meetings of state institutions, laws and regulations, state addresses or government official speeches, court decisions and judicial orders or decisions of arbitration boards or of other similar agencies.

An unpublished work is one that has never been published in any form, or which was first published after 2003 but created before 1935.

Note for the European Union: If a previously unpublished work is published first time ("editio princeps") later than 70 years after the death of the author, then it is no more public domain but it is granted a copyright for 25 years (Council Directive 93/98/EEC, see here)

These tables outline the estimated length of time of copyright per country[7][8][9]. Laws regarding anonymous works, corporate-authored works, or non-literary works vary per country. This is not intended to be used as a legal guideline since it cannot reflect the complexity of the copyright laws in effect at any one time and since copyright laws are changing continuously; this section simply provides a useful summary as part of a more in-depth research. See also the following Wikipedia copyright length lists for further information:

↑s304 Copyright Act 1976 "Copyright in a work created before January 1, 1978, but not theretofore in the public domain or copyrighted, subsists from January 1, 1978, and endures for the term provided by section 302 [17 USCS Sect. 302]. In no case, however, shall the term of copyright in such a work expire before December 31, 2002; and, if the work is published on or before December 31, 2002, the term of copyright shall not expire before December 31, 2027." s302 states "Copyright in a work created on or after January 1, 1978, subsists from its creation and, except as provided by the following subsections, endures for a term consisting of the life of the author and fifty years after the author's death." The Copyright Term Extension Act extended the dates to December 31, 2047 and seventy years after death.